ABSTRACT
This chapter presents in detail how the effects of factors in a two-level factorial design which represents an efficient way of investigating the effects of several independent variables on a response of interest are limited when the total number of factors increases significantly, resulting in an overwhelming total number of experimental runs. Some of the topics covered in this chapter include the construction of fractional factorial designs, detailed explanation of effect confounding issues, single phase and double phase response surface strategies, the use of Pareto charts as a tool for estimating the effects of factors, and the use of ANOVA in analyzing the effect of factors, as well as the use of different response surface designs for optimizing key quality characteristics of the process.
